Mandy Harvey Tells Tragic Story About Losing Her Hearing Before ‘AGT’ Finale Performance

Mandy Harvey has impressed America all season long with her incredible strength and talent as a deaf singer. Tonight during the ‘AGT’ finale, she opened up about the tragic emptiness she felt when she first lost her hearing.

Mandy Harvey captured Simon Cowell‘s heart and Golden Buzzer before anyone could even figure out what just happened. A deaf singer playing a ukulele had just flawlessly auditioned for America’s Got Talent. The truth is, no one would have even known she was deaf because her voice and pronunciation was so incredibly current and on-point. Mandy’s career exploded, with her story and perseverance at the forefront of it all. In the AGT finals, however, Mandy let America see her vulnerable side when she opened up about first going deaf.

“I would lock my door, sit on my bed and clap my hands to my ear until my palms were bruised to try to hear something, anything,” Mandy told the cameras through tears. “I didn’t want to go on, I didn’t want to do anything. I thought with my hearing, I would lose all my memories. I thought I would forget the sound of my parents saying ‘I love you,'” she shared. Mandy explained that she fell down the stairs one day and said to herself, “Is this it? Am I going to lay here forever?” It was then, she recalled, that she decided to get up, move forward and never look back. “It is because of that moment that I am here today.”

After Mandy’s heartbreaking yet empowering message, she graced the Dolby Theater stage for her final performance of the season. Wearing a bohemian, blush pink maxi dress, with her red hair braided and in wavy curls, she strummed on her ukulele and sang another original hit about moving on, and moving forward. Of course, Mandy impressed the judges, especially Simon who made the interesting point that Mandy lost her hearing before Adele, Ed Sheeran and even Taylor Swift were in the music scene. While her voice and style is so similar and fitting with the rest of today’s biggest artists, she never was able to hear them, he explained. It just speaks to how truly incredible Mandy is!